first serius bow looking for advice

[the q force]

ok, this is the first bow i make with some "real" weight to it; it draws on the high 40's possibly even 50, i cant for the life of me get the limbs to bend evenly i have shaved and charred and shaved some more, but it doesnt look right.

id like to post some of the pictures i have, but i'm ignorant as to how

[Hickoryswitch]

When you post a message in the bottom left hand corner is Additional options. If you click on it then click on Choose file you can choose your pic. Once you hit post it's done.

[65x55 swedis]

we need pics to help but what kind of wood are you working with?

[Pat B]

When you say shaving and charring and shaving are you charring the wood to remove it?  How are you presenting your bow so you can see it bend?   Are you exercising the limbs after you remove wood? How long is your bow and how thick are the limbs?

[George Tsoukalas]

I don't understand why you are charring your bow. There is bow making info on my site. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/

[the q force]

ok as soon as i get home ill be able to post some pictures (thanks hickory)

as to why i've been charring the wood, ive been using a blowtorch to lightly char the belly of the limbs to stiffen them up if i happen to shave too much from 1 limb (my scraper is a 10$ machete)

the wood is a hickory sapling. i'm nowhere near my bow right now to give details as to dimentions, i'll rewrite this post as soon as i can.

[Pat B]

Use only your scraper or a rasp to remove wood from the belly until you get it to bend. If you want to temper the belly, wait until you have the bow tillered first.
   Is your sapling dried? If not give it time to dry before you start your building process.

[the q force]

ok, here are some pictures of the bow, it is still under construction as i said before, but it is in shooting conditions, i've put a few arrows through it to see where i stood.

The meassurements are 60in ntn; 5/8 wide tips; 1 1/4 widest point on limbs; and 1/2 in thick limbs.

Thats not me on the last picture, he's going to b the future owner of that bow when its done (you can say he's my guinnea pig )

ps: to asnwer your question pat, yes, i cut the sapling during the winter of last year, it sat in the garage until late spring, that's when i had a friend of mine (the future owner of the bow) split it for me on his band saw. After that, the split stave sat in my garage drying at a cozy 80+ degrees all summer long through the early fall, when i started to work on it.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[adb]

Looks to me like it's bending way too much right at the fades. You need to reduce your very square handle section into nice tapered fading into each limb. For a nonbending handle, try for more of a tiller shape like this:

If you could get someone to take a pic directly at right angles to you at full draw, it would be easier to see your tiller. Also, I'd stop with the "charring" and just use a scraper or rasp. If you want to temper the belly, you can do that after it is tillered. A sapling bow is a very tough first time challenge... maybe get some boards and have a go.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[the q force]

Hehe, yes the handle is painfully square, but that's because i haven't shaped it yet, all i did was glue up a piece of wood (pine i think) to later shape it. Also that dark patch you can see on the bottom limb on the last picture, is glue mixed with sawdust, i needed to toughen up that area because of a really nasty not i came across.

i really would like it if possible to do as little shaving as possible since I'm right at the draw weight i was looking for, but the uneven bending is killing me.

[nickf]

you could consider tempering those spots. and then remove some wood on those mid and outter limbs. you're lucky that hanlde's still on, but next time it will probably pop off if you don't fade it out

Nick

[the q force]

i made the bow so that the handle area was non working, even before i glued that extra piece of wood to it; i didnt want to find any new bending surprices after adding a chunk of wood to the bed i would have worked so hard to achieve.

I've started taking some wood (slowly) from the fades, working my way to the tips. It is starting to look even now, but I'm loosing weight on the bow, will tempering bring some of it back once I'm done?

[DanaM]

Stay off the fades its bending there too much already. you need to get the mid and outer limbs bending more.

[Hillbilly]

You have hinges in the spots marked red-you need to leave them alone and remove wood from the areas marked green until it starts to even out. And pulling the bow that far with the tiller out of whack is going to make the hinges worse, cause more set and maybe chysalling. Get it evened up before you pull it further.

[attachment deleted by admin]